Lets add a few more to the list like lack of Facebook / online presence and credit history.

Apparently businesses have been asking potential job candidates to show them their Facebook pages that are password protected, or even going as far as to ask them for their password so they can log in as you and snoop on their own. This is a huge privacy issue… but employers get away with it. It’s akin to giving them the keys to your house and allowing them to snoop around. The job market is tough, if you tell them no, they’ll just find someone else who will gladly give up their privacy in an attempt to get a job.

On top of that, apparently they’re now determining eligibility based on whether you even have social accounts like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. If you don’t the assumption is that you have something to hide or are antisocial and you’re therefore a liability. This is ridiculously absurd and should never be a factor for general employment. Obviously if you’re going for a marketing job, showing knowledge of how to use Facebook, etc is likely a job requirement, but that’s where the line should be drawn.

I personally don’t have a Facebook account. Some people think that’s crazy which is fine– that’s your opinion and you’re entitled to it. I have no need for Facebook. For me I see it as a huge time waste. I’m on Twitter and that’s enough of a time drain as it is. I get out, go to WordCamps and other conferences, hang with friends, have large BBQs in my back yard. That’s quite far from being antisocial if you ask most people. And I lead quite a happy life without the drama of Facebook.

Credit is another touchy area and this one hits a bit closer to home. One of my neighbors has been unemployed for 2 years. Finally almost got hired last week– passed background checks, drug screening, and even had a start date. Then he was informed he failed a credit check. No job.

Credit is usually used as a measure of risk because someone with a lower score could be more desperate and could potentially steal from the company. While this is ok in some cases, it’s hard to not discriminiate. In the case of my neighbor, his credit was fine while previously employed, but being out of work takes its toll on not paying debts. That should be expected, especially in this economy, but should it be used as a factor in his eligibility? Probably not.

There are good job candidates all over that can’t get jobs because of how employers still find ways to discriminate against them. If we want to fix unemployment, here’s a good place to start. Help people that want to work be more likely to get jobs and get their lives back on track.

Its been well documented that the the problems with the US Postal Service stem from the out of control pension system as well as the congressional mandate to provide service to every single household is what’s causing the problem. Also, the fact they USPS is trying to deliver packages is ridiculous.

If the US Postal Service thinks that a higher volume of mail would save them from disaster, they’d be crazy. Volume of mail (income) is going down, while costs are going up. Anybody with a business background would tell you that’s a recipe for disaster. Even if you marginally increase your income, you still need to reduce your costs.

My grandfather is a retired postal inspector. He retired in his 50’s… he’s nearing 90 years old now… retired for 30+ years. Last I heard his government pension was about $80,000/year. Yes, you heard me right, $80,000/year. Must be nice… but it sure as hell isn’t sustainable for the USPS to keep paying pensions like that.

This whole debacle reminds me of other industries failing to adapt. The RIAA and MPAA have fought tooth and nail to avoid the digital era… instead of adjusting their business model, they cling to the old and dig their hole deeper by attacking people. Remember when they fought VCRs? Now they’re delaying movie rentals longer in hopes of people giving up and buying the movie instead of waiting, therefore making them more money.

In the end, the US Postal Service using the argument that the internet is killing them is just ridiculous. The USPS has been around for a long time… in one way or another before it was officially run by the United States Government. I wonder if anybody ever argued that other forms of communication like phone lines would kill them? Before any electronic communication, letters were the only way to communicate across distance. Did the mail volume go down with the advent of a phone in every house? I bet it did. Its much easier to pick up the phone and call your friend.

I set up my first WordPress site back in 2004 when WordPress was a very immature project. It was a great site and there were some good discussions, but due to some circumstances in 2006, it led me to delete my blog and all my content. It wasn’t necessarilly “deleted”, but taken offline.

About 2 years later, near fall of 2008 I set up my site again. Just to get something going I started from scratch and never imported the content. There were some bad memories with some of the old content. I wanted to move on.

Over the past 6 months or so I had toyed with re-importing the content. I had the backup. The last version I had run with the old site was 2.0.4. Today I decided to pull the trigger and import the old content.

I’ve imported 439 posts into this site. Now I have archives back to 2004. In September it will be 8 years I’ve been using WordPress– since version 1.2. It truly is an awesome publishing platform.

There’s a lot (not alot) that gets said on Twitter and some things really can’t be conveyed in 140 characters. On Twitter, your only real option is multiple tweets or a service like Twitlonger.

It’s something I’ve thought about on and off for a while now. The other week I stumbled across this post from Ian Stewart regarding tweeting vs blogging. It was the inspiration for a code muse last weekend. The result of that was shouldiwritethisontwitter.com as well as some more thinking about the subject in general. (Code from that site inspired by Aaron Jorbin’sScotch is for Shippers site).

After looking at my personal blog and seeing how few times I’ve written a blog post in the past year and then looking at my business blog and seeing the blog entry dated May 17, 2011 I decided things need to change.

I’m going to try and write here on things more personal where pretty much anything is fair game. I’ll continue to keep my blog over at Fusionized Technology WordPress related and more technical. Hopefully when I think about tweeting something and realize it’s blog material I’ll generate a few posts per week.

I’ve made various recipes over the years yet this one was hands down voted the best by every family member that had some.

The recipe is actually a combination of two separate recipes. I took the brine portion from one, and instead of continuing and cooking it as-is, I picked up another recipe to finish things off. The combination of flavors in the end, along with the moisture retained by brining results in an always moist and very delicious turkey for Thanksgiving. On top of that, its a fairly easy recipe to prepare. So without further adieu…

Brine

1 1/2 gal water

1 1/2c real maple syrup

1c Morton Kosher salt

3/4c brown sugar

Combine all ingredients in a brining bag. You may need to use a food grade bucket based on the size of your turkey. Brine the turkey overnight in the refrigerator or in a cooler filled with ice.

Some recommend boiling everything to help dissolve all ingredients but I don’t bother. If you do boil as your normal brining routine, make sure to cool to room temperature and chill in the refrigerator before adding the turkey to the brine. I usually end up making 2-3 batches of brine to completely cover the turkey in the bucket.

Turkey

1tsp salt

1tsp pepper

1 onion – quartered

4 cloves garlic

1 Granny Smith apple – quartered

1c butter – at room temperature

2Tbsp rosemary leaves – fresh and chopped

2Tbsp thyme leaves – fresh and chopped

6 sprigs rosemary

6 sprigs thyme

3c apple juice

1c water

Preheat oven to 350°F

Remove giblets from turkey cavity, rinse turkey and pat dry.

Place turkey on roasting rack in roasting pan, breast side up.

Salt and pepper inside and outside of the turkey.

In a small bowl, combine butter with 2Tbsp of rosemary and 2Tbsp of thyme.

Spread the butter mixture between the skin and the meat going as far up the breast as possible. Coat the outside of the skin with any leftover butter mixture.

Place quartered apple, onion, garlic, rosemary and thyme sprigs in the cavity of the turkey.

Tie the legs together using kitchen twine

Pour the apple juice and water into the roasting pan and place the turkey in the oven.

Cook the turkey until done (180°F in deepest part of the thigh), basting as needed. Don’t over-baste because opening the door frequently lengthens roasting time. Note: With a brined turkey, it seems like the cook time is 15-20min/lb which is significantly shorter than an unbrined turkey.

If the turkey browns too quickly, cover with a loose aluminum foil tent.

When the turkey is done, allow it to rest for 20 minutes before carving.

There was a comment posted on a Politico article regarding Ron Paul suggesting impeachment of President Obama following the assassination of Anwar al-Awlaki. I’d like to address a few things.

The comment:

I guess Mr Paul who claims to know the Constitution forgot the oath he took to protect and defend against enemies foreign or domestic. Anwar al-Awlaki was an enemy of the United States unless Paul can prove otherwise.

The oath:

Do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that you will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that you take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you are about to enter: So help you God?

Obviously the commenter fails to understand that the oath was to defend “The Constitution” from enemies, both foreign and domestic… and not to defend the United States from enemies, both foreign and domestic.

If you can find somewhere (anywhere?) in the Constitution that says that elected officials have a duty to protect the United States, regardless of what’s right or wrong, please… by all means correct me because I can’t find it.

With all the global warming and climate change debate going on, I find this paragraph from the NWS State College office this morning somewhat of interest. (Text has been cleaned up for readability but otherwise unchanged). Source

.Near term /until 6 pm this evening/…

0.7 inches of snowfall has been reported by the co-op observer at Laurel Summit this morning…. with an accumulation of 1.2 inches at Philipsburg. This marks the earliest date in the cool season that measurable snow has been recorded at these sites. Co-operative weather observations have been taken at both Laurel Summit and Philipsburg since April and December of 1997 respectively. Both KJST (Johnstown-Cambria County Airport) and KBFD (Bradford Regional Airport) have been snowing since 10-11z (6-7am EST)… with the snow falling heavy at times at KJST around 12z (8am EST). Temps at 34°F mean little accumulation in most places… but Mesonet observations showed some of the ridge top locations at 30-32°F around daybreak.

Regional web cams show a coating of snow even on roadways coating with snow at elevations above 1700 feet… such as Route 22 from Gallitzin through Ebensburg… to Chickory Mountain… where much of this road stretch is between 1800-2200 feet.